GOPIO asks Rutgers not to let students display Kashmir flag

Dr. Thomas Abraham, Chairman, Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) has cautioned Rutgers University against letting protesting students display Kashmiri flag in all areas displaying international flags across the Rutgers.

“By even considering this demand, you are questioning the integrity of India,” he wrote in a letter to Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway, asserting, “Kashmir is very much part of India.”

“There is no separate flag for Kashmir. Kashmir residents are not displaced people. In fact, the displaced people are the Hindu minorities who had to leave Kashmir because of violence against them,”  Abraham wrote. “If Rutgers displays such a flag of Kashmir, that will be the beginning of more sit ins by students who are opposed to such flags.”

Students of Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, had reportedly demanded to display flags of occupied peoples in all areas displaying international flags across the Rutgers campuses.

“We are very surprised to read that you are considering the demand of protesting students to display the flags of occupied peoples – including but not limited to Palestinians, Kurds, and Kashmiris – campuses,”  Abraham wrote cautioning, “This is a dangerous territory for Rutgers to get involved.”

“As a public educational institution, which belongs to everyone, Rutgers University has no business to get into the internal conflicts of countries around the world,” the letter continued.

GOPIO is non-profit, community service and advocacy group with chapters in 35 countries. GOPIO has seven active chapters in the New York area and three chapters in New Jersey.

GOPIO was started in 1989 at the First Convention of People of Indian Origin in New York. From the beginning, one of its major activities has been advocacy in civil and human rights violations of people of Indian origin around the world.